Gérard Leboucher

Female reproductive investment in birds depends of various environmental factors such as mate quality. Maternal investment can be measured in multiple ways: maternal behaviour, clutch size or general reproductive success. There are more subtle biases in maternal investment, these effects can occur even before laying. Increasing attention is being paid to components of the egg that are passed from the mother to the yolk. An important group of these components is androgens, mainly testosterone. We study the influence of mate quality and attractiveness on yolk testosterone and the long-term consequences, for the offspring, testosterone deposit in the yolk.